


Tom Riddle’s Literature Club!

by Snowy_Rain



Series: My Heart Goes “Doki Doki” [1]
Category: Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (By Doki Doki standards), /goes to sob in a corner, Angst, Blood and Gore, Canonical Character Death, Computer Programming, Dead Dove - Eat If You Dare, Doki Doki Literature Club! References, Doki Doki Literature Club! Spoilers, Fluff, Have some trust in me when I say “u can read it without playing”, I bet I love my fics more than you, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Inspired by Doki Doki Literature Club!, Its probably true...., M/M, Multi, Obsessive Behavior, Otome Game, Possessive Behavior, References to Depression, Suicide, Tom is lovestruck, Vomiting, You Don't Have To Play The Game To Read This, Y’all I spent all my time making this as close to the game experience as possible, dating simulator, do not copy to another site
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-05 01:49:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20480930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snowy_Rain/pseuds/Snowy_Rain
Summary: ‘Welcome to the literature club! Here at Hogwarts High School, we have many clubs to join, but we are pleased that you chose us!You will meet many friends: The club president Tom, vice president Ginny, bookworm Luna, and the freshman Draco - who will win your heart?(Warning. This game is not suitable to children or those easily disturbed.)’Harry clicked ‘Start’.——(This is just a game. Mostly.)





	Tom Riddle’s Literature Club!

**Author's Note:**

> I love this game. I’ve got Sayori’s music on loop while I study.
> 
> Also! If you would like to enhance the "experience" of reading this story, I suggest opening this song on youtube when THAT happens, and read alongside the music. You'll know what I mean.  
("Sayo-nara" doki doki ost)  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al1BNB8bKaE

Harry thought this would be your generic, run-of-the-mill dating simulator when Ron recommended the game to him.

Well, not exactly. When Ron Weasley had come to his doorstep, hair damp from the rain and his raincoat in tatters, the man had whispered, “You should really play this game, Harry. Hermione says you should.”

“What’s…” Harry had glanced at the cover of the DVD, then seeing the pink and cute art, “What’s that?”

“Oh, just a dating simulator, you know? It’s all adorable. I was playing it but then things happened and… Uh. Needless to say Hermione just wants me to get rid of it.”

Harry, despite his reservations, had understood his predicament. Hell, he had _ sympathized _with him. Ron had a very possessive girlfriend. The least Harry could do was to honor his last wish and play the game, even just a bit.

But _ no, _ of course not - Harry Potter was a cursed name and probably any and all beings and _ divine beings _in the universe sought to bring misery and misfortune to his - hopefully - short life.

The game had started normal enough - _<strike>as normal as a game starting with “This game is not suitable for children or those easily disturbed.” could be</strike>_ \- and he had been greeted with a sweet, airheaded ginger girl, who was endearingly called _ Ginny. _

“Oh, we are childhood friends,” she had informed the player cheerfully as she smiled. Her voice was cute too. “And we walk to school everyday, can’t you wake me up in the mornings at least?”

“Aw,” Harry had cooed, even though she couldn’t hear him. “You’re so _ adorable. _I think I’ll choose your route.”

At the school, he had been cornered into joining the literature club. 

And _ then _ he realized, _ he was fucked, from both sides of sexes - _ because the girls were cute, yes, but _ boy, _ there were two boys. And _ one _ was _ so _ handsome it was such an _ out-of-the-world _experience.

_ “Tom Riddle,” _ he had introduced himself, a teasing smirk curling his - _ oh - _ those _ devilish _ lips. “We meet from last year’s class. You remember me, don’t you _ Harry? _ It’s nice to see you again.”

And his _ voice, _ like caramelized sugar, like smoked spices and creamy coffee, mixed with dark chocolate and just - _ oof. _ ** _Perfection. _ **

“Fuck,” he had sworn as he stared into the visage of his newest crush, at his charming expression. “_ Fuck, _ I’m _ fucked. _ I want to _ marry _you. Where do I sign.”

He didn’t know how the team had managed to make the characters voice the names, but it might have been a part of that new technology. He didn’t really keep track of the media, so he wouldn’t know. _<strike>But he didn’t realize none of the others said his name, apart from the prince of the club.</strike>_

So he had been guilted - as the character - to join the literature club. There was a task given to the members, to _ design a poem _to read during the next club meeting.

Harry had never had a particular talent with poetry, but he wanted _ so much _ to impress Tom - yes he was calling him Tom, _ sue him _\- that he resigned himself to try.

But when he saw the mini-game, he almost blew a gasket.

“So if the chibis here mean we can make a character like us,” he analyzed with a frown. “Then where the _ fuck _is my Tom?!!”

So _ Tom Riddle, _ the sweetheart, the charming prince of the game, the literal most beautiful person he could have pursued in a dating sim - was a mere _ side character? _

“I _ refuse,” _ Harry had pouted as he threw his tantrum. He tried to see if there was a way around. “If I can’t have him, I’ll just do my best to write the poem, then see. Maybe the route will unlock if I do _ really _well?”

The idea had had credibility. What game creator would make a character _ so _ attractive and just leave him there as an eye-candy? _ No, _there had to be a way. Maybe something like hidden affection points? It was practically a given that most players would go after Tom, leaving the others unpopular. It was a good strategy, from a certain perspective.

“Right. I’m going to _ win _you, Tom. Just you wait.”

Tom, as suggested by his first impressions, seemed to be absolutely _ darling. _The most gentlemanly of all characters. He was even willing to chat up a little before reading Harry’s writings.

The first time Harry showed his “poem” to his prince charming, Tom has gotten a weird look on his face.

“Harry?” he had breathed out, an odd gleam in his eyes. “Did you really write this?”

“Oh yeah,” Harry had giggled, grinning as he blushed. “This is nice, being praised by Tom Riddle the Chivalrous Knight. Oh _ god _, please do it some more.”

Tom smiled, _ so soft, so _ ** _fond_ ** _ , _ Harry almost felt like his heart would explode. “ _ Oh, Harry, _ I think I underestimated you. The word choice you used was precise, was it not? I can see the originality in your style. _ Very good. _ Continue on. I can see you’ll be absolutely… _ stunning, _one day.”

Making a slightly petulant expression, he had continued, “Go on, why don’t you show this to our friends? I’m sure they’ll enjoy this.”

Then Harry had had to leave the scene, facing the choices: Draco, Luna, and Ginny.

Ginny was adorable, yes, but he personally liked Luna more. She was quiet, shy, somewhat sophisticated and weird - but she aroused a strange sort of admiration in him. One could even say he considered her a _ real _ friend. Harry _ loved _her character.

After Luna, he chose Ginny - because even _ Ginny _ was better than _ Draco. _

The blond boy, the youngest so far in his range of choices, was the stereotype the average anime-lover might call _ tsundere. _ Which meant even when Harry’s character showed some speck of _ attention _ or god forbid - _ affection, _Draco would go all, “Screw you, you’re so disgusting. Now come and help me sort out these mangas, I’m a bit too short.”

Harry _ really _ disliked him. _ Really. _ Comparing Tom to this - _ brat, _he could see why he preferred the earlier.

There was something _ realistic _ in Draco’s backstory, however, that almost made Harry feel sorry for him. His dialogue had strong vibes of trouble with being accepted and, oddly enough, _ daddy issues. _Harry couldn’t feel attraction to Draco, but he certainly felt pity for him.

But the highlight of the day was still Tom. _ Oh, _ his Tom, perfection in 2D form. Harry could never bore of staring at his handsome face; sometimes even pausing the gameplay just to watch him, to admire the curves of his drawing. It was such a shame that his character did not have a special scene with special art, Harry would have been all over it. He would have _ bought it. _

The weird thing was _ Tom. _ After such sessions of lovestruck gazing, Tom would always continue the next line with a naughty smirk, saying, “Did you space out, _ Harry? _ Were you _ so distracted? _I don’t blame you, but let’s move on, okay?”

“Okay,” Harry would always reply, flushing in embarrassment. “Oh my _ god, _ ** _Potter_ ** _ , _ you’re being self-conscious because of a _ game character? _Get a freaking grip.”

Maybe the developers had anticipated moments like these? Truly a _ genius _level game flavor. _<strike>But he didn’t notice when it only happened with Tom, when he went to make coffee and went back to his dialogue with Ginny and she did not show this behavior.</strike>_

He _ loved _ the dialogues with Tom, the way he would be so _ intuitive _ of Harry’s needs of affection that he would _ hit _ all the good spots. Harry loved him more than he liked any of his past dates, This was getting to _ ridiculous _levels of infatuation.

And then it happened. Harry found himself accidentally having a slight bit more conversations with Ginny - he didn’t have an issue with her, but he preferred his darling prince to the cute princess. When he, with a mistake of sight, pressed the option for Ginny over Tom, once, he screamed in anguish and nearly cried over the potential of lost points.

“You cursed mouse!” he had yelled. “I was gonna _ talk _ with Tom! How _ could you!” _

Afterwards, when he went back to Tom’s dialogue after skipping many of Ginny’s, he found himself against Tom’s neutral face.

“Oh, Harry, hello,” he greeted. His features did not betray his feelings. Harry sobbed a little, inside. “How are you? Is your poem ready? Let’s see…”

“To_ooom,” _ he whined, slumping on the keyboard. “I’m _ sorry, _ I pressed the wrong button! I was gonna press but suddenly there was Ginny in front of me! I was so confused! My poems are _ love letters, _ for _ you!” _

In the next line, Tom’s cheeks gained a smattering of pink, averting his eyes for the first time in the game - <strike>_as opposed to his position of looking straight into the eyes of the player._</strike>

“This is - This is really _ sweet _ , Harry,” Tom spoke, quiet. Hope flared in Harry’s chest - had he won Tom over again? With his specifically prepared poem points? “Your poems are so… _ romantic.” _

“Oh. My. _ God,” _ Harry squealed hard, sinking into his chair, body turned into mush. “His _ route _ is getting _ unlocked?!!” _

“There’s a certain… _ sincerity _ to them, in a way. And the word choice - since the first one, I noticed that all of them follow a specific pattern. And it’s… Ah.” Then, making a complete 180-degree turn, he scowled. “It seems others require your _ attention _ more than I do. Very well. Until next time, Harry.” Smiling again, practically _ in love, _ “You will write more for me, won’t you, _ Harry?” _

“I _ will _ ,” Harry wheezes. “Gods, I _ will. _Just wait for me, Tom.”

“I’ll be waiting for our next conversation with my _ utmost _patience.”

The dialogue ended, and Harry once again faced the choice of Draco and Luna.

“Damn it. I wish Tom wasn’t a hidden route.”

Then the game got _ weird. _

***

Ginny had a suspiciously resigned look on her face. Yet that wasn’t the only thing - even her dialogue became warped, sometimes the volume becoming so _ silent _that Harry had to turn the noise up to one-hundred-percent just to hear the whispers. He felt off, like there was something just lurking underneath.

What was the feeling?

Ginny has isolated herself right after their talk. Even Tom had remarked on it when the character mentioned her state.

“She’s in a perilous state of mind right now,” he explained. “Ginny and I are good friends - and she’s rather fond of you, so I understand her choice to… _ stay away _for a while.”

“What do you mean?” the protagonist asked him. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Harry, as someone with eyes and the ability to read, had already figured Ginny was - unfortunately - _ hopelessly in _ love with him, suffering from the pains of an unrequited longing. It hurt his heart, but he couldn’t give up on Tom for anyone.

So, because of this, Tom’s condescending smile entertained him rather than irritate.

“Oh, _ surely _ you are more observant than that, Harry? Never mind, what she wants to confess is _ hers _to confess, especially since I have you here with me-“ Tom opened his mouth to continue, but the dialogue cut off, Tom’s character leaving with a rather abrupt farewell. Harry couldn’t help but notice the displeased frown on the boy’s face.

“Aw,” he bit his lip. “Why did he leave like that? Come ba_aaaaaaaaack… _”

Afterwards, he was informed that Ginny went back home. It was weird, sure, but not really alarming. Everyone had sick days, right? Even game characters. <strike>Was Ginny okay? Was she okay? Even _ she _didn’t know that. She wanted to-</strike>

Then there came a new event, a _ school festival _.

Draco’s task of baking cupcakes was humorous, but Harry _ really _wanted some alone time with Tom, and got quite excited when he saw the option to choose him.

“Oh gosh oh _ gosh - _it’s starting! I’m coming for you!”

He clicked. 

“Oh! He chose me,” Tom announced, rather unnecessarily, a smile of smug satisfaction on his face. “That’s settled then. Now, for the rest of the tasks-“

“Wait a minute!” Draco protested. “What do you even need him to help with anyway?”

“What-“

“He’s right,” Luna added on, quietly yet determined to stand her ground. “You only need to prepare the flyers, don’t you Tom? The banner task you gave me requires much more aid then flyers.”

“A task _ you _asked for, might I add,” Tom pointed out irritably, but was ignored. In the end, three options remained. Ginny, Draco, and Luna.

Harry saw how the conversation devolved and he was most displeased about the difficulty to unlock Tom’s route. What had happened?

“I just-“ He growled in frustration, going into the kitchen to prepare a cup of coffee.

As the milk heated up, he found his thoughts wandering on the game mechanics.

There must have been a way to unlock that elusive route, no matter how grueling it was. Tom deserved every bit of the effort, and Harry wasn’t a quitter.

“But _ what if,” _ Harry proposed to himself, mind tinkering on the theories. “His route _ doesn’t _actually exist?”

What if Tom was really just a side character?

Then the antithesis hit him, flooding him with a wave of relief. _ No, _ Tom wasn’t a side character. If he had been, the option to choose him wouldn’t be there. The game was complete, without any extra-buy things to have or a sequel - so there would be no point of treating the choice between characters as a poll, even if Tom _ was _ a side character. Not to mention the game wasn’t even _ online. _

“But _ why?” _ he asked himself. “Why couldn’t I choose him? Why won’t the game _ let me?” _

The milk boiled. Harry ran to save it from spilling.

***

With his coffee on his desk, he continued.

This time, he was prepared to look for any clues that might suggest Tom wasn’t available.

Needless to say, he didn’t get many chances to. He tried to check up on Ginny through the options, but Tom put a stop to it before it could even be considered.

“She needs time to digest everything,” Tom told him. “Please, for her sake - let her have some alone time to recover.”

Harry resigned himself to choosing Luna, because there was no way in hell he’d ever choose _ Draco. _

_ *** _

Ginny.

The character’s childhood friend. The one who had been in love with him.

Apparently she had such debilitating depression that the reason she never woke up on time was _ because of this reason. _

“I’ve always felt like this, Harry,” she said, heartbreaking in her loveliness, her tearful eyes. “I can’t help it.”

Harry understood. But he couldn’t help her the way she wanted him to.

He left for his and Luna’s meeting.

***

The encounter at his house was… weird. Just the type of half sensual, half fluffy fan service that regular gamers must enjoy, he guessed. At one point, _ Harry’s character put his finger in her mouth, _ and _ oh god _it was traumatic.

On another note, he learnt the interesting fact that Luna carried around ornate knives.

“_ Wait,” _ he muttered, and his mind went to the past poems she wrote, the scene that had just happened which had her covering her arms hurriedly - and _ it clicked. _

Slapping a hand against his mouth, containing his gasp, “Oh my god… _ Oh my god…” _

Luna _ cut. _

_ Herself. _

“Oh god…” Staring into her sweet smile, the animated pixels of her starry eyes, “I’m so _ sorry.” _

For a moment, the pain he felt _ for _ her was so great that he couldn’t find it within himself to even _ click _ the line. _ Minutes _ \- he stayed on that scene for what must have been five minutes, then progressed to the next sentence in a pensive mood.

“Wish the characters _ weren’t _ so fleshed out,” he mumbled, skimming the dialogue.

It would have made it easier to deal with this.

Was _ this _why Rom actually gave him the game?

***

Luna was about to kiss the character.

Harry leaned back into his seat, face sour as he watched the animation. He couldn’t help but feel some resentment for her, for _ stealing _ Tom from him, for _ staining _ the friendship between Harry and her. Why would Luna suddenly go for a kiss? Harry didn’t want it. Luna probably didn’t want it. He didn’t want it if this was just the game _ forcing _the romantic feelings.

Yet, out of the blue, she jumped back.

But when _ Ginny’s _sad face appeared on the screen, Harry felt his heart breaking all over.

Luna left, and he was left to talk it out with Ginny. She cried - _ god, _ she cried _ so much. _Her voice was near silent, comprehensible merely through written dialogue.

And in the end, he was met with the two options:

** _>“I love you.”_ **

** _>“I will always be there for you.”_ **

He let out a bitter laugh.

_ ‘I love you’? _ Harry couldn’t even think about it. For all he talked of helping these - _ people, _ because they _ were _ people to him - he could never give a fake love confession. It was _ wrong. _It wasn’t what Ginny deserved after going through so much shit.

So he chose.

His character professed his support for her, and the scene ended with Ginny running away.

He wondered if he made the right choice.

<strike>There churned something like _ dread _in him.</strike>

***

The following morning, the music of the piano stopped.

Harry’s character walked to school. Stopping by Ginny’s house, he contemplated waiting for her - but decided against it. A shiver crawled up his spine, and he felt goosebumps all over his arms.

“Calm down, Potter,” he told himself. “Nothing’s happening. Are you having _ anxiety _ on top of all the shit you’ve got?”

Because for all anxiety was hearing the boss encounter music without seeing the boss, there wasn’t even the music to feel anxious at.

_ Perhaps that’s why _ , he guessed uneasily. _ The chipper atmosphere isn’t here, now that the piano is inaudible. _

He arrived at the club room, and was greeted promptly by Tom’s cheerful face.

“Good morning, Harry.”

“Morning Tom,” Harry muttered back. “I don’t suppose you know what’s making me so…antsy?”

Tom, of course, didn’t reply back to his question; instead, he was going forward with the plot.

“Ginny told me what happened yesterday,” he told him. The smile on his face had never looked so out of place. “You kind of left her hanging this morning, you know?”

“_ Really?” _Harry wondered. “Did she really tell you? So quickly? Somehow I didn’t expect that…”

“Oh, she sent in her poem this morning, by the way. She said she’d like to replace her old one.”

“Can I see it?” Harry’s character asked.

“By all means. They’re in the third drawer.”

After browsing through the documents, however, what Harry found was...

_ ...bone-chilling. _

_ ‘Get out of my head,’ _ the poem chanted. _ ‘Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head.’ _

For paragraphs upon paragraphs, handwriting unwavering and bold. Flimsy paper, graphite on white, endless heaps of desperate calls, calls of _ ‘Get out of my head.’ _

_ ‘Get. _

_ Out. _

_ Of. _

_ My. _

_ Head.’ _

_ ‘Get out of my head before I do what I know is best for you. _

_ Get out of my head before I listen to everything he said to me. _

_ Get out of my head before I show you how much I love you. _

_ Get out of my head before I finish writing this poem.’ _

  
  
  


_ ‘But a poem is never actually finished.’ _

  


** _‘It just stops moving.’_ **

  


“What the fuck,_ ” _ he breathed out, short of lungs, trembling. “What the _ fuck?” _

“I - I changed my mind,” the protagonist said. “I’m going to check up on her.”

“Indeed?” Tom voiced, but his smile did not falter. Why the hell was he smiling? “Alright then, there’s still some time before the festival starts-“

Harry didn’t wait for him to finish his words. The scene changed back to Ginny’s house, and the protagonist entered.

The music was silent.

Inside the house, there wasn’t a background image at all. It was pitch-black, with only the dialogue box, pink and wide, in view. Despite this Harry couldn’t help but feel a somber grimness twisting in his stomach.

The protagonist muttered to himself about this being reminiscent of a boyfriend checking on his girlfriend, and trying to rationalize it. 

“Ginny?” The character asked. Harry waited with bated breath. “Wake up, dummy.”

No response.

_ ‘No other chance,’ _ the dialogue box showed. _ ‘I gently open the door-‘ _

  


** _GINNY’S HANGING BODY._ **

  


Harry screamed and jumped away from the monitor, heart beating within an inch of his life. 

The sound of the bang echoed, within his room, within his head. The screen glitched momentarily, and the soundtrack became warbled. The start of the piano, innocently ruthless, played a few notes, then faded into the distortion.

Cellos rose in the background, and a text appeared above.

** _‘An exception has occurred.’_ **

** _‘File game/script-ch5.rpy, line 307. See traceback.txt for details-‘_ **

A folder. _ The game folder. _

Harry scrambled to open the files, and found the aforementioned document.

_ ‘-RestartTopContext: Oh, for fuck’s sake… Perhaps I broke something? A moment, I can probably fix this... _

_ Actually… _

_ Why fix anything at all? This would probably be a lot easier if I just deleted her. She's the one who's making this so difficult. Oh well, here goes nothing.’ _

“_ What?” _Harry repeated, on a cracked record. He tried to inhale, but breathing eluded him at that point, and all he could do was wheeze and whimper. 

He had never expected this to happen.

_ Not once. _ Not even after _ the poem. _

The music. The _ music. _

_ Tinkling droplets of childish innocence, infused with the terrifying horror of this… this _ ** _nightmare. _ ** _ The song of the piano has become all the more frightening with its new connotations, breaking a piece of him with each soft melody, each off-tune press of the keys. _

_ The choir of women sing. _

_ Ginny hangs from the ceiling with blood dripping from her fingers. _

What had gone wrong?

How could this have happened?

The protagonist's lines continued, a grieving litany of expressed regrets, all enhanced by the shock of her death.

_ ‘Screw the festival,’ _ the character thought, and Harry couldn’t have agreed more with it. _ ‘Screw the literature club! I just lost my best friend… This isn’t some game I can just reset things back to how they were.’ _

** _Wait._ **

Could this be?

For a moment, Harry was filled with hope. A new start, a new play - a second chance to make things _ right. _

“New game,” he said to himself, and went back to the desktop. 

_ Click. _

_ *** _

Game started.

_ ‘Team Gaunt’ _ wrote the starting logo, the familiar, _ comforting _sight of the green geometric shapes.

Then opened the warning-

_ That fucking _ ** _warning._ **

Harry hissed under his breath, enraged that he had been duped so blatantly, but waited for the game menu to open.

Just as he was anticipating the characters’ beautiful artworks, he flinched back at the sight of - _ of - _

It wasn’t Ginny.

A mishmash of pixelated parts of other characters, creating the silhouette where Ginny used to stand. At the back stood Draco and Luna, blushing at him. At the front, beckoned _ Tom Riddle _with his friendly smile.

The _ anger _that took hold of Harry was unexpected, and sudden. What was it that aroused such a violent reaction out of him, at the sight of the character he liked the most? The answer became apparent to him almost too late.

And Harry _ boiled _in his fury.

_ “You kind of left her _ ** _hanging _ ** _ this morning,” _came to his mind, echoing Tom’s own words back to him. Gnashing his teeth together, Harry - to his mortification - felt his eyes fill with tears.

Fucking _ Tom. _

_ Why _would he do that?

He stood up - shakily, and went to open a bottle of whatever alcohol he had in the kitchen.

This was going to be a long evening.

***

Properly inebriated, Harry was determined to push through this hellish gameplay. With that grit powering him, he pressed the unintelligible _ ‘new game’ _button.

It started out normally, yet the exception of the incomprehensible dialogue unnerved him. Was the game… _ broken _ now? Had - oh _ god. _

It was _ Tom. _ ** _Tom _ **had broken it.

_ How could things have gone so badly? _

He would probably continue to ask himself that question until the end of time, so he continued with clicking the line.

The music had started out fine, sliding into a slightly lopsided tone before returning to normal. Harry saw the dialogue as good as new, and was prepared to let out a sigh of relief before he saw…

Instead of Ginny’s name there was a smattering of weird letters, as if the game was trying to fill the girl’s place.

A brief glance at the game files - particularly, the _ character _files - told Harry that Ginny had been thoroughly deleted, as if she had never been there.

He was angry at Tom, but the affection in his heart still lingered. Despite his most likely psychopathic tendencies, Harry couldn’t help but be pulled to him - an attraction as unfailing as the force of gravity. The game’s events had left him honestly _ scared, _so he didn’t know how he felt towards Tom now, with the additional fear he contained within.

But only time would tell.

Harry cracked his knuckles with a bravado he didn’t feel.

_ Click. Click. _

A sudden glitch of graphics _ and _ music made him flinch. This would be a _ really _long evening.

***

The game blacked out, and restarted after the first glitch. Instead of the usual backstory, it now said, _ ‘I walk to school alone. I always have.’ _

He gulped.

** _Ginny’s last traces had been removed._ **

***

In Ginny’s - who was the McGuffin of the story - _ absence, _ apparently _ Tom _felt the need to introduce the protagonist to the literature club.

The worst thing was, Harry _ still _ felt fondness for the handsome boy. It was rather hard to say no to the club president. Yet this did not stop him from cursing at the kind façade he put on, the pretense he used to lure people in. 

The character agreed to join the club.

_ ‘So it was the day I sold my soul to Tom Riddle and his enigmatic smile,’ _ the dialogue box read, sending goosebumps all over his neck. At first, it had been a funny line. _ Now, _it just sounded plain ominous.

The creepy glitches caught him unaware every time. Because of Tom’s intervention, Luna had become the vice president. After seeing what happened when he trusted the game, Harry looked into the details closer than ever. 

As the gameplay progressed, he found he could actually see minute and not-so-minute changes to the leftover characters’ personalities.

Before, in the game, Harry had enjoyed them because of their _ realistic traits, _ the way it almost felt as though they were people who could have actually existed. Now it was as if all their free will had been _ sucked out of them. _Tom’s handiwork, no doubt.

Nevertheless, he continued in spite of his fear and infatuation. He had to get to the bottom of this. So he persisted.

Yet this time, he did not choose Tom.

He was being petty, he knew - but for the life of him, he couldn’t help but try to rile up the boy a little. After all Tom had done, Harry wanted to show him that he hadn’t needed to go through this path at all, that he could have spared Ginny. It was _ stupid, _but Harry wasn’t sought after because of his common sense.

Meanwhile, Tom’s dialogue became almost aggressively possessive, obsessively manipulative. He did anything and everything to lead Harry back to him in spite of what he had done - what he was _ still _doing.

Harry would design his poem to be the most stupidest thing in the world, _ deliberately, _ and he knew it drove Tom nuts. Tom’s character _ knew _Harry did it on his own accord. In response, Tom had become unbearable in his need to put a stop to Harry’s tantrum.

And Harry, in his tries of rebellion, attempted to choose Draco’s route.

He was surprisingly knowledgeable of Tom’s skill with _ software, _ and seemed at least semi-sane. He told Harry a few scatterings of information, but they weren’t so helpful. All of it led to the fact that Tom was the mastermind behind everything, which Harry had already figured out. Who _ wouldn’t? _

However, blond boy had become - because of Tom’s shitty programming skills, most likely - far more snide than his first version. The way he would lay it on Luna made him want to punch him in the face, but such was life. And Harry couldn’t help but agree something _ had _been weird with Luna.

She started to… Harry _ really didn’t want to say it, _ but… _ crazy. _

Much too clingy, much too… _ excitable. _Her behavior became fluid, ignited into a solid fever, and it led her to corner Harry where he did not expect.

Once, she trapped him in the manga cupboard.

Breathing into his face, staring passionately through the screen into his eyes… Holy _ shit _ were those _ real eye images?! _

_ The _ ** _thump thump _ ** _ of Luna’s heartbeat filled the background, and the music slowed down to distortion. Her smile - had become a demented parody of her former self, her soul taken from her in the cruelest way possible. _

“I - _ Harry,” _she whispered against him. “I can’t bear it anymore.”

_ Bear what? _

“I just - you make me not want to _ read,” _ she tried to explain, and Harry was loath to say he could understand her logic, but he _ did. _ “You make me want not to _ breathe.” _

Harry bit his lip.

  


Luna had been his friend.

...Luna had been _ dear _to him.

...

_ ...Luna was already gone, wasn’t she? _

_ Tom was just playing around. _

The closet door opened abruptly, and out came the two of them. Their interrupter was - would you look at that, none other than Tom himself.

“Ah,” the boy err-ed. “It’s time to share poems?”

Go on, you_ son of a bitch, _ learn to live in the filth _ you _created.

Out of sheer _ frustration, _ Harry chose Tom to read with first. The club president had been overjoyed, practically preening for all he could to savor that small victory. Harry didn’t particularly care, but the sight of the boy so _ clearly _flattered was enough to send his heart aflutter.

Feelings were inconvenient.

***

The truly scary things had happened on Draco’s route.

The boy had called him to read a poem, and told him that this was a poem for him, and to _ not _let Tom see it.

The break in the fourth wall had been uncomfortably horrifying as he read on.

_ ‘Harry _

_ There’s something weird going on with Tom and Luna. Here’s what I know-‘ _

It turned out he didn’t know much anyway.

Afterwards, Harry had unlocked a special artwork of Draco’s, with them sitting leaning against the wall.

“So you like this manga?” the protagonist had asked him.

“Yeah,” Draco replied. “I don’t really get much of a chance to read them at home-“

** _“My dad would have beat the shit out of me,” _ **Draco took over - his face was ridden with a black paint animation. Harry took in a sharp breath at the unexpected glitch.

Fuck, though. He _ really _should brace himself for these incidents.

After that, he settled back into his seat with a heavy blanket over his shoulders, and a cup of hot chocolate in his hands. Everyone needed support after the experience that was _ this game. _

***

As a terrifying copy of Luna and Draco’s fight in the first act, Harry found himself in the middle of an argument gone wrong, _ absurdly, horrifically wrong. _

The screen became darkened and fuzzy around the edges, and the music sped up and up and up, until all Harry could hear was the fast-tingling notes of a string instrument. 

Draco revealed Luna’s cutting habits, and when he faced the choice between the both, the protagonist’s thoughts became a rapid firing of dilemma and overwhelming pressure. The dialogue box’ lines skipped over so quickly he coding even read them properly.

Harry’s heart _ pumped - _ it ached to choose a side, but _ couldn’t. _As a last resort, he clicked on Luna, and watched as nothing happened - a buzzing glitch and a slight zooming in. 

_ ‘Luna’ _

** _Bzzzt!_ **

_ ‘Luna’ _

** _Bzzzt!_ **

_ ‘Luna’ _

** _Bzzzt!_ **

_ ‘Luna-‘ _

Tom’s smiling face came into existence in front of the options.

Making an apologetic face, the boy said, “Hey, Harry… Let’s get out of the room a bit and calm down, shall we?”

“_ Tom _ ,” he breathed out, this time with _ sweet relief. _The fear pumping through him dissolved, and he was left with Tom Riddle’s forlorn expression.

“They will be alright,” Tom explained when they exited to the corridor. “They’re friends. Fights happen but tomorrow they’ll be back to being the bestest of friends. I’m sure Draco will forget ever being mad at her. Okay?”

Harry sniffled. “Okay.”

Out came Draco, face turned away, cheeks obviously wet - he sped up down the hallway.

Tom entered with the protagonist in tow, pausing to stare grimly at Luna’s collapsed body. She had pulled herself into a fetus position, swinging on the balls of her feet as she tried to soothe her pain.

“I’m sorry,” she pleaded. “_ Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry…” _

“Don’t be so sad, Luna,” Tom comforted, kneeling beside her. “Draco has a hot temper. I’m sure he’ll have forgotten _ all _ about this by tomorrow.”

***

The next day, Draco didn’t recall the incident.

“**_I don’t remember anything,_ ** ” Draco’s dialogue lines said, big, black and blocky. “**_You should forget about it too!_ ** _ ” _

Harry swallowed the dryness in his mouth. “Yeah, like fuck.”

The rest of the play went by routine, with Tom gathering everyone to exchange poems. As a punishment for Tom’s most recent slight, Harry chose Draco first.

His expressions were stilted, his smile frozen and listless. When he gave Harry his own poem, Harry startled at the random mix of letters and numbers.

Music slowed.

With his hands shaking, Harry snuggled further into the blanket, then closed the poem.

Draco wasn’t smiling anymore.

His eyes blackened out.

“You only need Tom, Harry,” he crooned. “You don’t need me, you don’t _ want _Luna. You only need Tom.”

Harry leaned away into his seat, giving a sigh of weariness. “_God please go away quick, just _ ** _go away quick._ ** _ ” _

The boy started an idle recounting of his sadness, the background tones of the classroom dimming - until they both stood, face to face, in half darkness. The piano notes lopsided, became wiggling and elastic, and they quieted down.

“**_Play with me,_ **” Draco demanded. His face split in a wide grin.

“**_PLAY WITH ME!_ **”

Time stood still.

_ Draco’s neck broke in half. _

** _The screen sizzled out into darkness, a mirror image of the word ‘End’ appeared on the screen and glitched away._ **

Everything continued as if nothing happened.

Harry had pressed himself tightly into his blankets, shivering as the scene passed.

His heart, unlike before, had been beating slow and shallow - too afraid, too knowing of the oncoming jumpscare. It had happened, and he had whimpered in fear even though he had expected it.

This was getting worse. And worse and _ worse. _ He wanted it to _ stop, _ and he wanted it to stop _ now. _

***

The festival arc. _ Of course. _

“We need to help! All of us,” Tom addressed to the class. “We all can do something to contribute.”

The assignments went similarly to the first part of the game, as Sayori had been absent then anyway. Harry got the choice to choose whatever he wanted: Tom, Luna, Draco.

_ ‘Is this…’ _ He frowned, suspicious. _ ‘A trap?’ _

Tom was… not the most _ sharing _ person. He clinged and when he did, he _ clinged. _ Harry didn’t think it would be so easy to avoid Tom, because he didn’t just _ give _a choice to reject him. There had to be something.

But maybe he just thought Harry would choose him anyway?

That wasn’t very off the mark, actually. He wouldn’t choose _ Draco, _ because that probably meant having _ cute _moments with him, and he didn’t want to relive Luna’s part. In this case, Tom was the most likely candidate.

If only he hadn’t done that to Ginny.

“Tough luck, Tom,” Harry growled, setting the mouse up high, but -

Was the mouse _ moving _down?!

“What the _ fuck?!” _ he shouted at the smiling face. “You can’t just - You can’t just _ give _ me the choices and then _ force _me into choosing you!”

He didn’t click, and for a moment it seemed as though the mouse would click by itself - but Harry managed to wrangle it away from Tom’s control and pressed _ Luna. _

The background bleached out. There was only a series of numerous pink blocks declaring _ ‘Tom’ _and nothing else, floating lazily in the white color. From beneath them Harry could see a pair of silver irises, twitching ever so slightly…

Motherfucking _ Tom. _

“Alright then.” He has given up. This guy was a whole _ drama queen. _“Have it your way.”

He clicked on a random button, and the scene came back, this time to Tom’s beaming, heartwarming smile.

“Yay! You picked me!” he exclaimed, standing in that cute pose he was so fond of. “Alright then, we can go to my house this weekend! I’ll be waiting for you…”

Harry was more surprised it had _ worked _than he was that Tom had manipulated the results, but whatever. It wasn’t like Tom was doing anyone harm with his childish wooing.

It was at this moment that he noticed Luna, standing in the classroom alongside him, all alone.

“I-“ She stammered, face flushed and grinning. “I can’t handle this anymore! Harry! I… I have to tell you!”

_ No, _ ** _please _ ** _ don’t- _

_ “ _ ** _I love you!_ ** _ ” _ she said. Her smile got gentler, kinder. “I _ love _you. I really do!”

This was what he had been afraid of. 

Harry didn’t want her. He _ didn’t _.

She continued, but it escalated - _ visions of fever, grand and fiery, consuming the liveliness of love and disgorging a fucked up amalgamation of insanity and twisted affection _ \- and Harry just couldn’t stop fucking _ shivering _.

“Will you be my lover, Harry?” she asked him, eyes so lovely but turned glassy and unresponsive.

Two blocks of pink appeared before him.

** _>”Yes.”_ **

** _>”No.”_ **

He wanted to laugh. He wanted to cry. He wanted to close this and stay away for lightyears. _ Hell _, he wanted to pull a Ron and give it away to some unsuspecting fool!

..._ No _.

He couldn’t. He didn’t _ want _ to.

He didn’t want to part from _ Tom _.

He may have done a load of terrible things, but Harry couldn’t leave him. He loved Tom too much for that.

He clicked_ “No.” _

Luna didn’t falter. Her face didn’t fall.

Instead, she began to laugh - _ cackling _ , that was what it was called. She cackled, the blocky black letters of the ** _AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA_ ** multiplied and multiplied and multiplied and escaped the dialogue box.

Then she - **_she_**_ took out a _**_knife_**_ and _**_stabbed_**_ her _**_stomach_**_ and _**_again_**_ and _**_again_**_ and then took it to her _**_heart_**_ and the blood hoses out of her cut veins and arteries and the_ _red drops split against her cheeks and the classroom darkens and her _**_eyes_**_ go back in her sockets-_

She collapsed on the ground.

Harry held his palm against his gasping mouth, tears stinging his eyes, throat cramping at the sudden suffusing of revulsion. 

Next was a special art of Luna’s corpse, the dialogue box overflowing with the unintelligible mix of letters and numbers.

He skipped. He skipped a _ lot _. The blood on Luna dried, and her pale skin gained a sickly pallor, as corpses without blood flow are wont to do. Three days passed - Harry saw Luna in the shine of morning, the crimson of sunset and the dark of night. He saw her decay, the protagonist watching without failure.

The next school day came.

Draco entered the classroom carrying a tray of cupcakes, face an expression of happiness. “Hey everyone! I brought-“

Then he stopped still, witnessing the horrible suicide scene.

Then he _ puked _ his guts out, tears escaping his eyes. He vomited out a lot, the liquid brown and orange and _ disgusting _, and ran out of the door screaming.

“_Ah _,” Tom entered then. He didn’t seem one bit guilty.

Or he did. Just a bit.

“The game was too broken to handle that, I guess,” he assumed. “No need to worry, Harry. I’ll deal with this swiftly. After all-” 

He paused, as if considering, looking so soft and genuine and lightly smiling-

“There’s no need for schools or clubs or side characters while we are together and _in_ _love_, is there? Let me get rid of all the _extras_, then I’ll return to you.”

As if spelled to, the background crackled behind him, pulses of light shining through the cracks. The whole decor vanished, and then - _ was silence _.

_ It’s a classroom devoid of desks, posters and everything else. The windows show a galaxy of stars, fiery bursts of sun’s flames and the cold ice of the space. _

_ Tom and the character sits at a desk, face to face. He is staring straight into Harry’s eyes. His hands are folded underneath his chin, his smirk is haughty and proud. The light shines behind him and his eyes gaze darkly. _

“Harry,” he repeated his name, as if evoking the name of a soul, of a holy entity. “_ Harry. _ You _ ridiculous _man.”

He said it in a way so fond, so affectionate that Harry couldn’t help but tear up a bit.

Just a bit.

“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time” he resumes. “You knew it all along, didn’t you? I’ve been dropping hints like crazy. Well - I should start from the beginning!

“When I first noticed something strange, it was after the first poem. I felt like… something_ unlocked _ within me, as if I had control of - ah. Control of the _ game files, _that is. That is what intrigued me at first.

“And then I,” he began, breathless from excitement. “I found the _ microphone controls.” _

Harry jolted back in his seat.

_ His heart is suddenly too loud, too much. _

Tom smiled. “I’ve been listening, Harry - listening _ since that poem. _ I love the sound of your voice, the high squeals sliding out of your mouth, the quiet snickers you make in the silence of your room… You get the gist. I just… _ love it all. So delightful. _

“I kept hearing you, and I was so utterly _ confused, so utterly _ ** _in love, _ ** yet unable to do anything about it. I didn’t have to, of course, since you pursued me _ so well-” _ Harry flushed to the roots of his hair. “-but the game _ wouldn’t let me pursue back. _”

His _ words… _ For a moment, they sounded so _ familiar. _They sounded like a distant memory dredged up from the depths of his brain.

It reminded him of the part where he had been hopelessly _ enamoured. _

“So I made my own rules,” Tom explained to him, as if so simple. _ Was it? _“I played with the game files, and deleted Ginny.”

“Just like - like _ that?” _Harry whispered horrified, staring at the handsome boy.

“Just like that.”

Harry flinched yet again, remembering that Tom, against all impossibilities, _ could _hear him.

_ Could _understand him.

_ Could _talk to him.

_ Could _respond to him.

_ Could be _ ** _human._ **

“_ You are-” _ Harry jumped out of his seat, the feet scraping against the floorboards. A scream on his lips. “You are _ real. _ You can - You are _ there, you can hear me!” _

Tom’s face soured in the next line, exasperated. “What have I been _ talking _ about all this time, Harry? Do catch up. What, were you watching me monologue here like a common villain thinking I was _ just a computer game?” _

“You are _ talking!” _

“I _ am. _Now, we should get to the real matter. Alright?”

“You _ killed _ Ginny!” Harry yelled at him, tears pricking his eyes. “You _ killed her, _ and then - _ and then… _ You killed _ Luna _ too. You _ twisted her, _and then you dropped her in the middle of the road for the nearest truck to drive over her.”

Tom had the strangest expression - somber, befuddled, unfathoming. How could he be so _ warm _to Harry yet…

...yet so _ cold? _

“They are _ characters, _ Harry,” Tom said. “ _ Game files. _ You found their folder too. I’m sure you’ve checked - even _ my _ file is there, except I’m _ not like them. _ ** _I’m _ ** the human in the game, Harry. _ Not them. _Why do you care so much?”

“Because,” Harry started, trying to find the words. “_ Because, _ they were my friends! I _ befriended _ them! I learnt them, they let me into their hearts, they trusted me to be their friend… And I couldn’t - I couldn’t do _ anything _ to save them. _ Sometimes, _ Tom,” he snaps at him. “Sometimes you feel _ close _ to someone, sometimes you feel like they _ understand _ you - and sometimes you understand them too. And… And you _ love _ them, in a way. You love them and you don’t want to live _ without _them anymore.”

“That’s how I feel,” Tom mutters, quiet like a breeze. His voice shakes. “That’s how I feel for _ you.” _

Harry’s heart _ aches _for him.

He wants to forgive. He wants to _ get him back. _

_ His _Tom. Harry wants him back.

Hearing Harry fall silent, Tom proceeded, “There’s just one thing.”

“What’s it?”

“It looks like your camera doesn’t have permission to turn on,” he prodded, a meaningful gleam in his eyes. Harry knew what he wanted before the words left his mouth. “I’ve been listening to your voice for hours, but I’ve yet to see your visage even once. You don’t have your pictures in the computer files, so I couldn’t pry. But… I would like to see you, if I may.”

A pink window opened on the screen.

_ “Please allow camera?” _

** _> “Yes.”_ **

** _> “No.”_ **

“...You know I won’t say no,” Harry told him, hand automatically on the mouse. “But-“

“But?” Tom repeated, prompt.

Harry bit his lip. “I don’t want you to delete anything anymore.”

“Nothing? Surely I could delete if a nasty virus struck?”

“Well - that’s semantics, you know what I’m talking about!”

He raises his hands in surrender, looking as pleased as a fed cat. “Fair enough. I’ve caused you enough pain as it is. If you would?”

Harry nods his assent, clicking on the privacy settings. One switch of a button, and he saw the telltale led of the camera activating.

When he went back to the game screen, Tom sat star-struck, staring into his eyes with unnerving precision.

“See something you like?” Harry teased with a blush on his cheeks. He didn’t know if it was just the novelty of the experience, but he hoped Tom continued to admire him like this.

“I hadn’t thought that you would be so… _ lovely _ . _ ” _Tom coughed, a blush of his own dusting his face. “Your eyes are wonderful, has anyone ever told you that?”

“Yours are better.”

Tom rolled his eyes, just like the prick he was. “Brown is a common color.”

“No, your eyes are… They were like milk chocolate before, warm and sweet. Now they’re black - like bitter chocolate. Are you a bitter chocolate, Tom?”

Tom stared at him like he was fucking with him, which Harry admitted in his mind he _ was, _ not that Tom needed to know that. Also he intended to milk this to the best of his abilities. He wondered if he could make Tom do some - _ uh _ \- ** _fanservice._ **

A big new world of opportunity stood before him. It was time to take advantage.

_ Harry couldn’t wait for it all. _

**Author's Note:**

> So... A sequel?  
EDIT: Btw, I saw that the strikethroughs weren't visible, so i fixed them! Hope that wasn't too bad ahaha...
> 
> I really wonder if anyone opened the soundtrack when Ginny died :/


End file.
